Great Call on Altria! What's Next?

According to the thousands of investors in our Motley Fool CAPS community, Altria's (NYSE: MO) stock currently carries four stars out of a possible five. The tobacco company has earned 8,186 outperform ratings, against just 312 underperforms.

Many CAPS members have scored big by betting on Altria's stock, but few have done as well as TheGMaster. This astute stock picker has nabbed just shy of 80 points of market outperformance by giving the stock a thumbs-up back in mid-2006 and hanging on ever since.

TheGMaster is one of CAPS' elite All-Stars, managing 62% stock-picking accuracy while racking up more than 1,800 points. Altria isn't this player's only great call. Here are several other prescient picks:

Source: Motley Fool CAPS.

Though all three of these stocks have already posted big gains for TheGMaster, they've all been kept as open picks. Global recovery is what will help keep the wind in Southern Copper's sails, while Intuitive Surgical is more of a secular growth story as its continues to bring robotics to the OR with its da Vinci system. As for Health Care REIT, the business of leasing property to health-care companies and nursing homes may not be as exciting as robotic surgery, but it's hard to argue with a 6.1% dividend yield.

But what's caught this investor's eye lately? Here are a few of TheGMaster's most recent CAPS calls:

Source: Motley Fool CAPS.

TheGMaster seems to have a penchant for solid, dependable dividend stocks, and the recent picks above certainly fall into that category. For starters, this trio gives us some nice diversification: Linear Technology pumps out semiconductors, DuPont provides basic materials, and Eli Lilly represents the big pharma bloc.

Apart from the industry classifications, these picks have a lot in common. All are established, stable businesses with solid track records of profitability. All have produced good, if not great, returns on equity for their shareholders. And while all three have taken on significant amounts of debt, they all appear to have reasonably safe balance sheets. Of course, as mentioned above, these are also all stocks with attractive dividend yields.

I'm a bit biased, since I own both Linear and Eli Lilly. But if you ask me, these three picks -- and we can definitely throw Altria in here, too -- look like they could be great additions to a level-headed, long-term portfolio that can deliver returns in both current income and capital gains.

What do you think about these stocks? Head over to CAPS, and share your thoughts with the 165,000 other members of our community.

Still thirsting for more dividend stocks? Check out what my fellow Fool Anand Chokkavelu calls "the best dividend play in the market."